Brightline Raises $30 M. to Make TV Ads More Like the Internet

New York-based Brightline iTV Marketing Specialists just raised $30 million from JMI Equity, a “growth equity” firm, with ambitions of making TV ads more hip, more interactive and more like the web. Brightline specializes in a two-way exchange between the viewer and the ad, specifically through the remote control, which the seven-year old company thinks of more like a mouse.

That means its ads are more engaging because the ad is responsive, CEO and co-founder Jacqueline Corbelli told Fox Business. She used a recent Burger King ad as an example of an ad where the customer can click around, get more information about the product and sign up for a sweepstakes. “We invite the viewer into a deeper experience with The King and with the XT Steak Burger,” she said. “It’s not unlike the DVD environment.”

The clicking also means the ad generates data. “You can measure every time a viewer clicks their remote control to interact with a brand or product,” she said, and Brightline uses this data to modify the spots as they run.

It’s all about getting to consumers when they’re “on their couch leaning back versus at their PC leaning forward,” she said.

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